It was 2006, was making 70k a year at the time but was still living with my parents to save up for a house. Had an opportunity to buy land in my dream location and jumped on it. My father and I built a house on it over the course of the next year so moved in when I was 27. Was single at the time so I rented out the spare bedrooms to help pay for the mortgage. Finally got married years later so now it’s just me and the wife. For me it’s my dream house in a perfect location so I plan on staying here for the rest of my life.

Plenty of awesome lakes to live on in north jersey, Hopatcong, Mohawk, Culver’s lake, and highlands lake just to name a few.

Unfortunately, every range that you can rent a firearm at in NJ falls into the “tourist experience place” category when it comes to ammo prices and range time. There are plenty of nice outdoor ranges but they all require you to bring your own firearms and ammo, and to have a membership. Some of those ranges have a policy for members to bring guests so if you have any friends in NJ that belong to one that could be an avenue to explore.

You can look into Morristown, nice walkable town with a good restaurant and nightlife scene. Would be a little further from the city than Montclair but a little closer to some good hiking and other outdoor activities.

I’d look for a maker space around you. Only issue is for the monthly rate to join you could probably by a cheap Wen drill press off of Amazon. If you’ll never need it again you can sell it once you are finished and get most of the initial cost back

There is an astronomy club that has an observatory in liberty township.

http://www.uacnj.org

I get them every other ad break on Hulu. All other issues aside I'll be voting against Kean just to spite whoever came up with that ad.